{"id":463269,"date":"2026-09-14T11:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463269\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:02:10","slug":"innovator-of-the-year-awards-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463269\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovator of the Year Awards 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/d27xrzeiyowx7g.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IOTY-2026-cover-scaled.png\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"960\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IOTY-2026-cover-696x960.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"IOTY 2026 cover\"\/><\/a>            <\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Now in its 12th year, OCBJ\u2019s Innovator of the Year Awards celebrates the entrepreneurs, executives, and companies redefining what\u2019s possible in Orange County business. Since its founding, the program has grown into one of the region\u2019s most anticipated recognitions, drawing nominees from nearly every sector of the local economy. This section brings together this year\u2019s full slate of nominees \u2014 a cross-section of the county\u2019s most inventive minds, spanning health tech, law, finance, manufacturing, and beyond \u2014 alongside a look back at the honorees who earned this recognition before them.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Our editorial team revisits past winners to trace what they have been up to since winning the award. You\u2019ll also find perspectives from the sponsors and advertisers who make the program possible.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The recognition culminates at the Innovator of the Year Awards Luncheon on October 7, 2026, at the Irvine Marriott, where this year\u2019s winners will be announced. Brett Wall, former EVP and President of Medtronic Neuroscience and one of 2025\u2019s Innovator of the Year winners, headlines as keynote speaker.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Whether you\u2019re here to see who made this year\u2019s list, revisit the innovators who came before them, or hear from the sponsors backing OC\u2019s next generation of ideas, this is your home base for everything Innovator of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now in its 12th year, OCBJ\u2019s Innovator of the Year Awards celebrates the entrepreneurs, executives, and companies redefining&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,12416],"class_list":["post-463269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-free-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}